The first one is AikiNews 68. There's an article titled "Encounter with Sokaku Takeda". Reading it, I got the feeling that Takeda was more of an old man wanting to talk and show off more than anything else. I didn't ever get the notion that he was grumpy or cruel.

MM

08-29-2008, 01:55 PM

There's a decent Takeda History article in AikiNews 79. Talks about Sokaku's training, his dojo challenges, etc. Doesn't portray Sokaku in a bad light at all.

He says to Yukawa, "I am going to execute attacks only against your hands, so be careful."

Talks about him becoming gentle and more saintly later on in his life and what his mid-Meiji period student's thought of that.

MM

08-29-2008, 02:00 PM

Aiki News 80 has another part about Takeda going around to other schools to test his skill. It's noted that Takeda would win the first and lose the second and third. There's more stuff there. Interesting reading. Doesn't portray Takeda as bad at all.